Research and development

Western Australia is a world leader in mining technology, and contributes to Australia's leading position in global mining software.Western Australia’s universities and research centres collaborate with government, industry and business to conduct innovative research in selected knowledge economy disciplines, such as process and resources engineering, civil engineering, physics and astronomy, law and earth sciences.

For example, among the world-leading research centres in Perth are:

The Australian Resources Research Centre (ARRC), which is a petroleum and minerals centre of expertise and an initiative of the Western Australian Government, CSIRO and Curtin University of Technology. With over 300 scientists, the ARRC delivers world-class solutions, services, technologies and people to the resources sector.

The National Resource Sciences Precinct is a collaboration between the CSIRO, Curtin University and The University of Western Australia (UWA), which tackles some of the resources industry’s most complex challenges by connecting the world’s best researchers with industry and government.

The National Centre of Excellence in Desalination leads and coordinates the country’s research in desalination technology with the aim of delivering improvements on a commercial scale. Working with 13 Australian universities and the CSIRO, and with support from more than 90 Western Australian Government, water utility and industry sponsors, the centre has 50 research projects underway across the country, nine of which are being carried out by Western Australian universities.

The UWA Oceans Institute capitalises on UWA’s research strengths in oceanography, ecology, engineering, resource management and governance to find ways to safely and sustainably deliver water, food, energy and bioresources from our oceans.

Western Australia’s hosting of, and involvement in, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project will expand the State’s scientific capacity and further diversify the economy. The volume of data generated by this research project will be the catalyst for the development of the next generation of supercomputers.